Prelude For The Straying Stars
by Neroft
Summary: A young soul's journey from struggling through Shinigami Academy and surviving the Gotei 13. Friendships made and lessons learnt, where would her path finally lead her to? HisagixOC


_We will never stop._

_Even when we have to go our separate ways._

_We won't stop no matter how far we have gone._

_But, if there comes a day when we will understand fear,_

_It would be too late to look back to into the past,_

_Then perhaps we will understand that this is fate._

_The prelude for the straying stars._

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Chapter 1- Crossing The Rubicon

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The girl stared across the first district. Beyond the small shallow ditch lay Seireitei. The huge grand-looking buildings were definitely something compared to weather-worn, broken down huts in Rukongai. Anyone would rather be on that side of Soul Society, rather than this one… right?

Of course. This girl should know. She had been traveling throughout Soul Society as a wanderer for as far back as her memories could take her, which wasn't many to begin with in the first place. While passing through one of the more civilized districts, she had heard of a place where souls were provided with food and shelter if they had any spirit energy.

She remembered the occasional periods of starvation. That possibly meant that she had SOME spirit energy. Hell, free food and shelter? Why not give it a try?

Which explains why she was in currently in this district, waiting for the opportunity. Lucky for her, the Shinigami Academy was holding an entrance exam in a few days time.

She spun around and walked away. Was she prepared to cross over to that side? There was no choice of returning when she did. …What was this? Why was she hesitating? In such a situation as she was in now, there was really nothing much to lose.

She stopped mid-step. Perhaps she could have a better life in the Seireitei. A life with some meaning, a life worth living. A life where there were memories worth remembering.

…And a life with free food and shelter.

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Ugh, there were more people than she thought there would be. She wasn't a people-person, that's for sure. As she squeezed through the crowd of spectators, she found a large one storey building at the other end of the crowd. Those who held some spirit power were registering at a small table near the door.

Many people were already inside the building. The Shinigami at the registration table was about to leave when she stumbled up.

"What do you want?"

"I-I'm here for the entrance exam."

"I see. Name?"

N-name? She stared at the Shinigami. Her… name? It wasn't as if she didn't have one, but she didn't really use it that often… sometimes it would pop up in her mind…

"I'm asking for your name, girl, is that too hard to ask?"

"R-Reishiko Mika."

Hmm, now where did that come from? She certainly hadn't remembered thinking that, but still, it sounded familiar. Hmm…Yeah. That was her name. The Shinigami handed her a slip of paper and gestured to the door. She hurried inside as the doors were closing.

Reishiko's eyes took a moment to get used to the dimness of the room. The building looked waaaay bigger inside than from outside. There were already a large amount of people crowded around in the room. Some looked rather uneasy, others seemed confident while many had a face that told everyone they didn't know what was going on. Reishiko was one of the latter of course. A shinigami on a platform at the other end of the room started speaking.

"Applicants please gather round and give me your fullest attention! For those who know the procedure, good for you, or bad, should I say, for needing to come again." Some grumbles echoed throughout the room.

"I am now going to explain the exam procedure for the benefit of those who do not know. There are three parts to this 'exam'. Firstly, we will assess the existence of your reiatsu. Those who do not have any reiatsu will be immediately disqualified. Secondly, we will test for your ability to solidify this reiatsu. Those who cannot will also be disqualified. The last test is a general written test to…well, test your intelligence. There is no disqualification in this last part of the exam, although it is well appreciated if you do have some brains."

"Everyone is to enter the testing rooms in groups of five. Hurry up now, we haven't got all day."

For the first section, the examiner placed an odd silver ball into her palm. Instructing her not to do anything and simply relax, she watched in amazement as the ball started to glow red and rise in temperature rapidly. She realized that that was an indication that she DID have reiatsu. Even though she knew that she had reiatsu, actual confirmation made her so much much more… curious to what she can do with this energy.

However, the second section wasn't as smooth sailing as the first. In fact, it was as rough as sandpaper. D: 

"Section two, start. Please solidify your reiatsu."

How…How the hell did you solidify your reiatsu? Is it even something that could be solidified? Reishiko stared blankly at the examiner as the examiner started to arch his eyebrows. Clearly he wasn't pleased with one of the candidates stoning on the spot. Reishiko felt her nervousness rising as he pointed his clipboard at her.

"You. Why aren't you doing anything?"

"……I don't know how."

"Another useless one. If you can't you're disqualified. Leave the room."

Useless? Her knowledge of reiatsu may not be as superior to his but that gave him no reason to call her useless. As he returned her her slip of paper, she saw that he marked it with a large cross. She bit her lip and left the room. There, her hopes have been dashed. Maybe she wasn't meant to enter the Shinigami Academy at all.

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Reishiko felt a sudden tug at her arm. She yanked her wrist away in instinct and turned to find a guy who looked not much older than her. One strikingly odd thing that she first noticed about him was the '69' tattooed on his face.

"Are you just going to give up like that?"

"…?"

"Are you just going to walk away after he called you useless?"

"What can I do? I still won't know if I argued back."

"Then you could learn. It's quite simple really. All you have to-"

"Why are you telling me?"

"Well… I know how it feels to be totally clueless about something yet to be pressurized to do it… it pretty much sucks. I've failed this section twice already and no one helped at all. So I thought it would be better if I gave you a headstart. And better if you could prove the stupid examiner wrong, he's a bastard. As I was saying, all you have to do is imagine your reiatsu like a wind that surrounds you, the concentrate it to flow around a single point. Well that's how I imagine it. Like when dust flies in a circle when a breeze blows…"

Reishiko's eyes widened. She finally understood. Turning around, she ran back to the testing room.

"Wait! Where're you going? You haven't attempted it yet!"

But she didn't reply. Having no choice, he ran after her.

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Reishiko burst into the room. "Let me have another chance at this section."

The examiner looked insulted at her sudden entrance. He was still in the middle of assessing another batch of applicants.

"No. If you can't, give up. Begging is pathetic."

That was it. She had enough of the pompous idiot. Ignoring his instructions, she faced her palm upwards, she concentrated on what the '69' guy told her. Like the wind…to slowly gather… on a single point…… What felt like pure energy swirled above her palm. The energy took form a sphere, growing and growing, larger than what all the other people were able to achieve.

The examiner had a look of disbelief. So did everyone else. Especially the guy who had taught her. All he did was describe it to her! How did she manage to get it simply after one explanation?

But one thing was certain. That bastard of an examiner HAD to let her pass.

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The '69' guy disappeared after that examiner passed her. She had searched through the crowds for him, but it was rather hard, as all the other guys seemed to have the same face. However, the last section of the exam started before Reishiko managed to find him.

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The last section was a huge pain to Reishiko, as she was sort of illiterate, but it was okay, it was multiple choice! And it had quite a few diagram pattern looking things. So she should be fine. Right? …Right. …Right! …Well, it was no use worrying over the past.

The examiner for that last section returned her her result slip. A tick for the first section. A tick for the second section. …And a tick for the last section. She had passed overall.

That meant…that meant… she was going to attend Shinigami Academy. For the first time in a long while, she experienced many positive feelings.

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Hmm, okay, this is my first ever bleach fanfiction. I'm sorry if this is horrible or kills your brains or stuff. I was forced to put it up on fanfiction or face the possibility of getting my plot butchered by my friend. So yes. I would be slow in updating, partially because I haven't exactly planned out the what the next chapter is going to be, and also because school will be putting me through a blender, swallowing me, and then regurgitating me out again. xx

Regarding the story, I'm sorry if it may seem slow or something but I wanted to start straight from the beginning and avoid frequent flashbacks. Cause there was an irritating amount of flashbacks in my prototype and I didn't like that :c Also, the chapter titles I'm using are taken from the real manga, cause I'm a crazy Bleach fan like that. And the poem was taken from the bleach chapter -17. All I did was translate it from chinese. ..

Last note- Reviews are nice, and you get a free cookie with each one you give! o

Disclaimer- Bleach I no own :c


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